Glass, a journeyman goaltender that made his NHL debut last year at age 32, has been signed to a pro tryout and will join the Flames to compete with Jon Gillies and David Rittich for the backup job in training camp.
"I think any kid from Calgary would tell you the same thing if they were in my position. We grew up with the privilege of having an NHL team in our own back yard, and we had heroes and role models in our lives because of it.
"I had posters of Theoren Fleury and Trevor Kidd on the walls of my bedroom. Those were my idols. Kidd always had that flashy gear and I went to his goalie camp every summer.
"It's pretty special to be able to skate on the same ice now and see what they saw when they were Flames."
It just took a little longer than most his age.
With the kind of resume Glass was building as a teenager, getting here was more 'when' than 'if,' back then.
His already sky-high stock rose when he played on perhaps the greatest junior hockey team ever assembled, backstopping Canada to a gold medal at the 2005 World Junior Championship.
Crosby, Bergeron, Getzlaf, Weber, Richards, Carter, Seabrook and so many more - those names were not only destined for long careers in the NHL, but stardom, too, and stature among the game's all-time greats.
Yet Glass never got there. Not right away, at least.
"It's been a journey, for sure," he said. "But I feel like I'm just getting started at this level."
Glass has been grinding away on the second and third tier for most of his career, spending seven years with as many teams overseas in the Kontinental Hockey League, and another seven touring the minors in North America, with stops in Toronto and Rockford, Illinois, most recently.
And yet, after all that, he wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
"There was a bit of culture shock for the first little while, but if you want to stay at that level or even get to the next one, you have to first learn how to succeed," said Glass, who posted a save percentage above .910 in five of the seven years in Russia and Kazakhstan. "That's on and off the ice.
"When me and wife, Allie, first starting dating, that was my first year over there. We did it long distance for one year and then she decided to move over with me full-time.
"That was a big factor in me being able to make a career work over there, and ultimately get back to North America in 2016."
Glass took the hockey world by storm when he made his long-awaited NHL debut as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks last season - 14 years after being drafted by the Ottawa Senators.
He made 42 saves and was named the game's first star in a 4-3 overtime win against the Oilers at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
"You couldn't have scripted it any better," said Glass, whose parents, Glen and Jane, along with Allie and the couple's two-month-old daughter, Lucy, were among those in the crowd cheering that night.
"It seemed like everybody found a way to get up there for the game.
"It was amazing."
With Corey Crawford on the shelf with a season-ending injury, Glass won three of his first five games, but struggled down the stretch, finishing with a 3-7-3 record, an .898 save percentage and a 3.36 goals-against average.
Now on a PTO with the Flames, he knows he has to prove himself with a new team all over again.
"I got a small shot last year and I want more this year," Glass said. "I'm hungry.
"I want to show what I can do.
"In this game, all you can ask for is a chance."
